• Article

Microsoft has made great progress with its Your Phone, gradually adding more and more capabilities so you can text, answer calls and browse photos stored on your phone from the comfort of your computer. But now things are about to get really interesting.

The company is increasing what it dubs the "seamless connection between PC and phone", adding the ability to run Android apps in Windows 10 via the Your Phone app. There is, of course, a bit of a catch.

LibreOffice has long offered itself up as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, and today a major new version has been released. LibreOffice 7.0 sees a number of key changes and improvements, not least of which is greatly improved compatibility with Microsoft's suite.

Performance improvements come courtesy of Vulkan GPU-based acceleration which lands in LibreOffice following a switch from Cairo code to Google's Skia Library. For fans of aesthetic change, there is a new look in the Sukapura icon theme -- which is the default theme for macOS users. But these are just a few of the changes in this major update.

These days it's quite rare for a new phone to arrive without us already knowing everything there is to know about it via numerous leaks.

That’s true about the new Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra which were revealed in all their glory yesterday, leaving very little unknown about the new phones which Samsung officially took the wraps off today.

Cyber exposure company Tenable has published a global industry study, carried out by Forrester Consulting, that reveals the vast majority of organizations (94 percent) have experienced a business-impacting cyberattack in the past 12 months.

Yet despite this only four out of 10 security leaders say they can answer the fundamental question, 'How secure, or at risk, are we?' with a high level of confidence.

New research published today by intelligent integration platform SnapLogic reveals that 83 percent of organizations are not fully satisfied with the performance and output of their data management and data warehousing initiatives.

The study carried out by independent research firm Vanson Bourne, finds that the average organization has 115 distinct applications and data sources across their enterprise, but almost half of them (49 percent) are siloed and disconnected from one another.

We reported yesterday on how lockdown has impacted broadband speeds around the world, although the UK has been less affected than some, new research from NTT DATA UK shows that connectivity is still an issue for many people.

The survey of 2,000 UK consumers shows that 49 percent have struggled with the speed of their broadband during lockdown and 31 percent have struggled to find reliable mobile phone signals.

When it comes to racing games, there are generally two types of gamers -- those that like realism and those that just enjoy having a good time. I fall into the latter category, preferring games like Mario Kart instead of Gran Turismo. After all, I own an actual car and driving it isn't too fun. I'd much rather shoot turtle shells at opponents, but I digress.

If you prefer simulation racing games, I have some really great news. Today, Logitech announces the Logitech G923 TRUEFORCE Sim Racing Wheel and Pedals for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. What makes the leather-wrapped G923 so special is its "TRUEFORCE" technology, which is an enhanced force-feedback system. Logitech promises it will provide a very realistic experience when playing games like Gran Turismo Sport and Grid. It even has a nifty Rev Indicator, which uses LED lights to let you track your RPMs right on the wheel. Very cool.

The Center for Generational Kinetics and WordPress platform WP Engine recently released a study looking at the digital habits of Europeans born between 1996-2015.

It shows that Generation Z has become the most internet-dependent generation, but what does this mean both for the Gen Zers themselves and the wider digital community? We spoke to Fabio Torlini, EMEA MD at WP Engine to find out.

What's that you say? There's a Windows 10 update that's causing problems? Get outta here! Just over a month ago, we wrote about KB4559309 -- the automatic update that gives everyone the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge -- and complaints that it was causing systems to slow down.

Well it seems that it wasn't just a few isolated cases. Microsoft has now been hit with enough people complaining about performance issues and slow booting, that the company has been forced to launch an investigation. It is also asking for more feedback from anyone experiencing the slow-down problem or a general reduction in system performance.

When all of your devices are Apple, you can live quite happily knowing that everything works well together. When I owned a MacBook Pro, for instance, it was wonderful to get my text messages and phone calls on my laptop -- I didn't need to run and find my iPhone. The same goes for iPad -- I can get my iPhone calls and texts on the Apple tablet too. When my friends and family are nearby, and they use iPhone, I can easily share things with them using AirDrop.

If you aren't familiar, AirDrop uses a mixture of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to allow you to wirelessly share things like files, photos, URLs, and more with other nearby Apple devices -- no need for an internet connection. This isn't just helpful for sharing with others, but with yourself too. When you want to transfer photos from your iPhone to your Mac, for example, you can use AirDrop instead of a USB to lightning cable. Many have wanted Google to copy AirDrop, and now, the search giant has thankfully done exactly that. Called "Nearby Share," it is coming to both Android devices and Chromebooks.

The future of computing is ARM, not x86. Apple is once again a trailblazer, as it is eventually transitioning all of its Mac computers to its own ARM-based "Apple Silicon," ditching Intel entirely. True, Microsoft is also using ARM a bit with Windows, but that company's indecisive behaviors and previous failure with Windows RT has left consumers a bit nervous. Apple was correct to just pull off the band-aid and dive right into the ARM waters.

Well, mostly. Apple has a two-year plan to move Mac to ARM entirely, but in the interim, it will still sell Intel-based machines. In fact, today, Apple updates its popular 27-inch iMac, but it still uses old-school x86_64 Intel processors and not the new Apple Silicon. With that said, the 27-inch iMac can now be configured with a 10-core processor for the first time, and solid state drives are now standard -- you can even opt for an 8TB SSD. The webcam has been bumped up to 1080p, which is great for those working from home. It even gets the T2 Security Chip and improved speakers.

The shift to remote work has brought on a new set of operational and security challenges for many organizations. A majority of employees will not be returning to the office anytime soon, evidenced by Google’s recent expansion of its work from home (WFH) mandate until July 2021, along with the current state of the world in general. With the future of work now a reality, it is pivotal that organizations learn how to effectively manage remote teams securely.

There are many steps managers and organizations can take to ensure their remote workforce is operating at its best while remaining secure. The key to this whole practice is treating offsite employees the same as in-house by implementing new endpoint management, IT, and security processes that lead to the same end results that were achieved when folks were in the office. But what are the key steps managers should keep in mind to navigate these unchartered waters? What can organizations do to better manage and secure their remote workforces? 

There's been a huge shift to remote working this year, but new data shows that there has also been a 161 percent increase in visits to high-risk apps and websites as personal use of managed devices has nearly doubled.

The study from cloud security company Netskope finds that 64 percent of workers are now remote. Along with this increase in remote work has come an 80 percent increase in the use of collaboration apps as remote workers seek to remain connected with their colleagues

The twin dilemma: how to create strong, secure passwords without forgetting them? The solution is obvious: make use of a password manager. They’re common as muck these days, but our favorite by far is the brilliant Bitwarden.

A quick precis of why we love Bitwarden: it has all the features you’d expect in a good password manager -- easy and convenient to use, while locking your sensitive data away in a watertight vault using end-to-end 256-bit AES encryption that ensures it remains private. There’s 2FA support for extra security, and it works across all your devices: desktop, mobile and browser.

It’s also open source, so completely transparent (and if you don’t want to trust your passwords to its ultra-secure servers, you can even set it up as a self-hosted server as we’ve done). It’s also completely free to use -- no key features are locked away behind a paywall, although affordable premium tiers exist -- just $10/year -- if you want to take advantage of extras like a password vault health check or TOTP generator and storage, or just want to support it financially.

Anyone who's worked on a help desk or in tech support will know that a high percentage of requests relate to granting access to systems or resetting passwords.

In fact IT personnel expend a full month of work (21 days) each year on mundane identity and access management (IAM) tasks such as resetting passwords and tracking app usage, according to a study by password management company 1Password.